A Jetstar pilot has been arrested by heavily armed Victorian police in a dramatic operation on Monday over the mysterious disappearance of two elderly campers.
Victorian police believe the 55-year-old man arrested may have repainted his 4WD a different colour soon after the pair vanished 20 months ago in an effort to avoid police detection.
Gregory Lynn, 55 was arrested on Monday when special operations officers swooped in on two helicopters to make the arrest at a remote campsite in Victoria. They seized his vehicle according to the Daily Mail.
Elderly friends Carol Clay, 73, and Russell Hill, 74, vanished while camping in Victoria's remote Wonnangatta Valley, 350km northeast of Melbourne, on March 20, 2020.
Police have struggled for clues and conducted extensive searches in the Victorian alps over the last 20 months but have never found the pair.
Detectives recently made a public appeal for a blue late 90s Nissan Patrol vehicle which had been captured on CCTV in the area at the time Hill and Clay had gone missing.
Police had been watching the pilot for months leading up to his arrest.
The 55-year-old owns the same make and model as the one police were looking for and has the same roof rack, but it's beige, not blue with police investigating whether he repainted the vehicle.
Lynn also had a large firearm collection made up of rifles and shotguns, according to the Herald Sun.
Jetstar said that Lynn had been removed from duty as a result of his arrest.
"Jetstar has been advised by Victoria Police that one of its employees is under investigation for a serious crime and will work to assist in this due process any way we can," a spokesman said.
"As a matter of course, the employee has been removed from duty as a result of their arrest."
The 55-year-old man was arrested at about 5.30pm on Tuesday (local time) and will be interviewed by police on Wednesday morning but charges are yet to be laid.
The area Hill and Clay went missing in is very remote with just three very rough four-wheel-drive tracks in and out, no phone reception, and the closest town is hours away according to ABC News in Australia.
Hill was a bushman and a former contract logger who helped to build one of the main tracks into the valley.
Two days after he left for the Wonnangatta Valley, his camp site was found burnt out. His car was there, but a drone was missing, along with the couple according to ABC.
